Former England hooker Richard Cockerill is the coach of Leicester Tigers. Born in Rugby, Cockerill established himself as the B of the "ABC club" alongside Graham Rowntree and Darren Garforth.

He made his England debut against Argentina in 1997 and was a half-time replacement for Bath hooker Andy Long in Clive Woodward's first match in charge against the Wallabies at Twickenham. Long appeared out of his depth and Cockerill's performance earned him a starting place against New Zealand, where he famously stood up to Norm Hewitt during the haka.

A dip in form led Cockerill to lose his first choice hooking position at Leicester to Dorian West and he was also dropped from the England side after criticising Woodward in his book entitled In Your Face. He subsequently moved to France, but signed again for Leicester for the 2004-5 season.

In 2005 he was appointed forwards coach at Leicester Tigers succeeding John Wells. Cockerill served as acting head coach of Leicester Tigers in the early part of the 2007-08 season before Marcelo Loffreda arrived from Argentina in the wake of the Pumas' third-place finish in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He also took over as acting head coach in February 2009 after Heyneke Meyer resigned due to family reasons.

On 17 April 2009, Cockerill was confirmed in the head coach role. On May 16 he guided Leicester to win the Guinness Premiership with a 10-9 win over London Irish in the final and he repeated the feat on May 29 with a 33-27 victory over Saracens.

The following season, Cockerill led Leicester back to the final of the Premiership but this time it was Saracens who took the glory with a commanding win at Twickenham.

Cockerill came under pressure in the opening months of the following season as the Tigers struggled without their international contingent who were at the World Cup. However they turned their season around and an extraordinary run saw them claim a place in the Premiership play-offs as well as winning the Anglo-Welsh Cup. However, the Tigers again came up short, this time losing in the Premiership final to Harlequins.